The story of my festival-going life tends to be that I miss the one film that winds up on everyone’s lips. It’s some kind of uncanny anti-radar that never fails. This time though, I managed to catch one that had everyone buzzing to the extent that people were turned away at the door of the (read…)

I don’t know when it happened exactly – maybe it was his non-performance hosting the Oscars – but the worm has definitely turned on the general enthusiasm for James Franco. For a while, everything he touched was a source of endless media fascination, but that’s pretty much over. No one I talked to here at (read…)

There’s something rotten at the heart of Claire Denis despairing Un Certain Regard entry The Bastards, and you just know whatever it is will eventually consume the film’s lead character, but you can’t help but root for him anyway.

Only God forgives and even He will be hard pressed to give the latest from Nicolas Winding Refn a pass. Those who discovered the Danish director following the crossover success of Drive are likely to be disappointed as well. Only God Forgives shares the previous film’s star Ryan Gosling and a strong sense of style, (read…)

Is “dark whimsy” an oxymoron? I guess it is, but I can’t think of a better way to describe the bone-dry, jet black humor delivered with an impish twinkle that has marked at least the last couple of pictures from Dutch writer/director Alex van Warmerdam whose latest, Borgman, debuted yesterday morning in competition at the (read…)

I’m going into each film here at the festival knowing as little in advance as I can possibly manage. I’m not even reading the official catalog entries so I wasn’t sure what exactly to expect from prolific Japanese director Takashi Miike. My only hope was that he’d help blow off a little mid-festival langueur and (read…)

I had hoped to take some time for regular updates about what the festival is like outside of the movies themselves, but between screenings, reviews, eating and sleep, I haven’t made the time for anything but a little bit of exploring and picture taking. So, by request, here’s a bunch of the photos I’ve snapped (read…)

A cat named Ulysses is a key figure in Inside Llewyn Davis and that reference is not the only thing that calls to mind an earlier film from Joel and Ethan Coen. The emphasis on music also very much put me in the mind of their O Brother Where Art Thou? And yet, tonally, the (read…)

You see a lot of movies and most of them are pretty ordinary. Once in a while you see one slightly above average and it’s a cause for celebration. On rare occasions you see something truly outstanding and you’re reminded why you love cinema in the first place. It’s the nourishment that keeps you going (read…)

The Bling Ring which premiered this afternoon in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival is, contrary to the small sampling of negative early twitter buzz I happened across, another winner from Sofia Coppola. Less contemplative than her glacially paced (but wonderful) previous film Somewhere, Bling returns in a way to some (read…)

Believe me, I didn’t fly all the way to Cannes just to see The Great Gatsby which already opened in the States last Friday. I was actually going to skip it and instead pour as much of my energy as possible into films that haven’t been seen yet, but I hadn’t had time to see (read…)

One of the big successes at Sundance this year was Fruitvale which was snapped up by The Weinstein Company, renamed Fruitvale Station and instantly became “the Sundance film that’s going to cross over and make an Oscar run.” Following a similar trajectory to recent films like Precious and Beasts of the Southern Wild, it has (read…)

Barcelona-born, Mexico City-raised Amat Escalante is three for three with Cannes. His first two films, Sangre (2005) and Los Bastardos (2008) both played in the Un Certain Regard category and this year he’s graduated to the main competition with Heli, a confidently mounted but mostly unpleasant exercise in human cruelty. I didn’t see Sangre, but (read…)

The Official Screening Guide for Cannes dropped today, glowing tantalizingly before me like the golden idol at the start of Raiders of the Lost Ark. There were no spiders or spears getting here, nor was I betrayed by the guy who would one day play Doctor Octopus, but there were definitely a series of (read…)

A Simple Plan (1998) Directed by Sam Raimi. Bridget Fonda as Sarah and Bill Paxton as Hank. Sarah: You gotta remember how people see you. You’re just a normal guy. A nice sweet normal guy. Hank: They’re gonna know! Sarah: No they won’t! Nobody would ever believe that you’d be capable of doing what you’ve (read…)

Back to School (1986) Directed by Alan Metter Timothy Stack as Trendy Man and Rodney Dangerfield as Thornton Melon Trendy Man: Mr. Melon! Your wife was just showing us her Klimt. Melon: You too, huh? She’s showin’ it to everybody. Trendy Man: Well, she’s very proud of it. Melon: I’m proud of mine too. I (read…)

It’s a testament I think to the modest charms of Susanne Bier’s new romance Love is All You Need that I went into it feeling cranky and not at all in the mood for a love story, but came out feeling won over. I suppose I should’ve given Bier, better known for darker and more (read…)

Olivier Assayas’ Something in the Air (French title Apres Mai) is a wistful, but wholly unsentimental look back at that high school age when you’re smart enough to know the world is falling apart and still naive enough to think you can do something about it. It’s 1971 near Paris and a teacher is quoting (read…)

Tiny Furniture (2010) Written and directed by Lena Dunham. Lena Dunham as Aura and David Call as Keith Keith: So, how’re… how’re things? Aura: Ummm… I’m really tired. I took three Klonopin and woke up next to a spoonful of peanut butter.

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999) Written and directed by Jim Jarmusch John Tormey as Louie, Cliff Gorman as Sonny Valerio, Henry Silva as Ray Vargo and Joe Rigano as Joe Rags. Louie: For the past four years, this guy’s done maybe twelve perfect contracts. Perfect. Like a ghost. He’s very valuable. He’s (read…)